A Tale of Ghosts and Dragons
by chicaalterego
Summary: Jake has been sent to retrieve the ancient Amulets of Aragon to free the souls of the dragons trapped within. Problem is, his father decided to tag along to the haunted town along with Jake to visit his crazy ghost-hunting cousin. Can Jake keep his dad unaware of the existence of magical creatures in the most haunted town of America?


**Disclaimer:** I don't own AMDRAG nor DP.

**Summary:** Jake has been sent to retrieve the ancient Amulets of Aragon to free the souls of the dragons trapped within. Problem is, his father decided to tag along to the haunted town along with Jake to visit his crazy ghost-hunting cousin. Can Jake keep his dad unaware of the existence of magical creatures in the most haunted town of America?

**AN:** Hi there, everyone! I come to you with my first (and probably only ever to be written by me) DPxAMDRAG fic. The reason? I thought it would be cool to make a fic that didn't revolve around the Mugwog Cup nor having Danny get out of Amity Park… sure, I'm pretty sure some out there fit the bill, but, well, I don't think anyone has actually gone with this prompt so, Enjoy ^_^

* * *

><p>.<p>

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 1: One trip and Two Amulets.<span>

It all began on a sunny day, a few weeks into a busy day summer break; usually, summer days meant long hours of lazing about and hanging out with friends, playing around, maybe even make a trip to the beach… but no. Not for Jake Long, The American Dragon, whose grandfather had decided that Jake not having any school at the time meant he could have a free schedule for a 24/7 dragon training —among other things.

"This is so unfair!" Jake declared as he took a big, smelly bag of trash to the alley next to the store.

A pretty teenager walked close enough for them to be able to look at each other and he put on his most charming smile. She smiled back and gave him a flirty wink… of course, that was when the black bag broke underneath and the mysteriously gruel-like trash fell right into his shoes and somehow managing to splatter some of the substance not only in his clothes, but all over his face.

Needless to say, by the time Jake managed to get the stuff out of his face, the girl was long gone —not that he would have thought she would give him a second look after his humiliating performance.

He must have looked like the biggest loser in the planet at that moment, or so he thought.

"Aw, man! How am I going to clean this up!" A thought occurred to him right after his complain and, softly whispered "Mouth of the Dragon", then used his Dragon Breath to burn the contents of the alley's floor.

Feeling slightly vindicated, he turned around and headed towards the door 'I wonder what Trixie and Spud are doing—". As he gave a couple of steps absently, he tripped with a rock and he came tumbling down face first on the door's handle, leaving with a very nasty bump on his forehead.

'Looks like it's gonna be one of those days,' he paced his hand on his new wound and winced at the pain.

"JAKE!" His grandfather yelled from the backshop, "GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jake grumbled moodily, barely resisting from making an uncomplimentary retort.

Once inside the shop, he spotted Fu dog and his Grandfather looking concerned in what was a very long parchment. "Wow, these babies are ancient."

Jake looked back and forth between the small elder and the talking dog a couple of times; they something in their serious expressions gave Jake a really, really bad feeling. "Hey, gramps, what's with you and Fu dog?" then, trying to break the heavy mood he joked, "You look like the Huntsman stole your underwear or something."

The dry looks Jake got in return left very clear that his joke had not amused them.

"This is not a laughing matter, young dragon. The Amulets of Aragon have been sighted."

"The amulets of what?"

"The Amulets of Aragon," Fu Dog began in what Jake knew to be his long-explanation tone, "These amulets were created by a powerful dark wizard known as the Great Grove Goeth—"

"Well, that's a mouthful." Jake commented as Fu flipped the pages of a book he seemed to have taken out of nowhere. An image of an old, long-bearded appeared, his resemblance to Saruman from 'The Lord of the Rings' was uncanny; the only difference being the man had a black robe instead of white.

"The Great Grove Goeth," Fu repeated sharply to shut Jake up, then continued as the image shifted to show two golden collars with emeralds in them, "was tasked to create an amulet that gave humans the power of a dragon." Fu made a pause and took a deep breath, looking like he didn't want to go on, but did so anyway.

"To make this amulets, it is said that Goeth stole the soul of two dragons —one per amulet— and imprisoned them inside two heirlooms of the royal family: the queen's and the king's emerald and gold collars."

"So, you mean that, somewhere out there, there are a couple of dragons trapped in pieces of jewelry? And has it been, what, a thousand years?"

"Longer than that, actually," Fu admitted, "These amulets were made long before the magical community decided to hide themselves from regular people; actually, one of the reason things are as they are is because of what happened next."

"And that was…" Jake trailed.

Luong Lao Shi kept on with the story-telling. "War. Young Dragon," old eyes fixed themselves upon Jake's. "It was one of the worst magical wars our kind has ever faced. So much hate, it could only end when either the kingdom of the dragons were eliminated. And end it did on the day of the princess' birthday ball."

"Who won?" Jake asked curiously; kind of taken in by the ancient tale.

"War never has any winners, Young Dragon."

Jake rolled his eyes. It was so typical of his gramps to give him a vague philosophical non-answer.

Giving a much better reply, Fu dog added promptly, "We don't know, kid. Like I said before, those amulets are ancient. Fu closed the book and put it under his arm. "But if the amulet is out there we have to get it back, kid."

"So, let's get it back," Jake punched one of his hands with his other. He might not be all too happy with the idea of going out on dragon emergency, but anything was better that staying in the old store cleaning or doing training with his grandpa.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. The amulet in itself is big trouble, but it landed in Amity Park, Illinois, which makes things a thousand times worse."

"What's so special about Amity Park?" Illinois might be a bit far, but magical transport could take them there about as fast as a plane could; so Jake was sure the problem must lie in the town? Prefecture? He honestly didn't know… and yet, for a feeling in the deep of his stomach told him he had heard of the place before.

"Well," Fu trailed, taking out a napkin of somewhere in his skin —Jake tried to not pay attention when the dog searched between his rolls of fat and skin because, honestly, it was kind of disgusting— then Fu cleaned the sweat of his furry forehead, a gesture Jake was used to see when the dog was in a pinch because losing too much in a bet or another.

"Amity Park is haunted."

"You don't mean haunted as in ghosts, do you?" Jake asked worriedly. His experiences with ghosts was limited to that time with the Mugwop Cup, but that one was enough to make him aware of how dangerous ghost could be.

"Sorry kid, but that's exactly what I mean. Amity Park was built in a place where the veils between our world and the Ghost Zone is the thinnest. Magical creatures had stayed away from those lands long before the town was founded, and continue to be today. You can say the place is a magical 'No Man's Land', not even the Dragon Council has a say in what happens there."

"So… how did you know the amulet is there?"

"The Oracle Sister's had a vision the amulet would manifest itself soon and, since it had appeared there before, it's safe to assume it's been there for a while."

Dreading to know, but unable to keep himself from asking confirmation he asked, "It was Sara the one with the vision, wasn't she?" Sara, Miss Sunshine and smile with the power to predict horrible things about to happen.

"Yeah. It wouldn't be much of a dragon emergency if Miss Doom and Gloom had predicted a happy thing to happen over there, would it?"

Jake groaned, "Oh, why me?"

…

Jake made it all the way home not long after trying to decide when would be the earliest he could depart to the haunted town. The only good thing happening on that day was that he was, for once, let free, and he decided to meet with Trixie and Spud in the skate park to hang a bit. He had not been able to since school ended.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here," Trixie looked at him with arms crossed and an unhappy look. "I was starting to think we weren't worthy of your presence, oh, great dragon." Her feet came down on her skateboard, making it jump towards her arms and she caught it expertly.

"Yeah, dud. You have been gone like forever!" Spud raised his hands to the sky and waved them like he was emphasizing something with the gesture. And, just like Trixie, he proceeded to pick up his skate.

"Sorry, guys, but gramps has been drilling me without mercy since we last saw each other… I barely got today free because he has stuff to do for a dragon emergency outside of the state."

The two human teenager exchanged looks for a moment before looking back to him.

"Tell us everything," Trixie demanded.

"Sure, but not here. Let's go to my house."

…

Seated in the sofa of the living room Jake proceeded to brief his friends.

"… But the worst part is that Amity Park is supposed to be haunted!"

Of course, it was as Jake said those words that Jonathan Long entered the living room.

"Dad!"

"Hi, Jake my-boy, Trixie, Spud…" Oh, please —Jake begged the universe— don't let him have heard that.

"So, Amity Park, eh? Haunted town, that one is," he commented with humor and the tree teens flinched.

Before Jake could come with a cover for that, his dad added. "You know, I have a cousin living in Amity Park. Good man, but not all there in the head," he shook his head once, "he is a, 'ghost hunter'," the air quotes alone made it clear Jonathan Long didn't believe in something like ghosts, but that didn't stop him from saying it out loud, "He thinks ghost are real, pretty crazy, right?"

"Right, completely crazy!" Jake agreed a tad too vehemently, but his father didn't seem to notice the overreaction to his question.

"Oh, well. Still, he is family, and there is nothing more important than family… you were just saying your grandpa wanted to go there with you?" Jake really had hoped his dad hadn't heard that part too.

"Yeah, about that—"

"I think it's a wonderful opportunity to meet your relatives! I haven't talked with them for years, but I know they have a son about your age…"

As Jonathan kept on talking of the old times, Jake and his friends exchanged a worried look.

"I will give them a call so we can stay with them while Lao Shi… what did you say your grandfather had to do over there?"

"He is buying new merchandise for the store," Jake said the first thing that came to mind. Fortunately, his dad was not a very attentive person or he might have questioned the need to buy merchandise for a shop that had never made a sale from long before he was born. Belatedly, he noticed what his father had said at the end of his little speech. "We? You are coming too?"

"Of course! It will be great! We can spend a lot of family time you and I!"

"Sure, great."

"Great. Oh, woowzers, look at the time, Jakey, I need to drive your mom and Haley to the bus stop for their mother and daughter one week camp."

And with that he left, leaving a very distressed teen and two sympathetic friends.

"Oh, gramps is going to kill me."

…

Jake wasn't even the least surprised when his grandparent started yelling at him in Chinese from the other side of the phone. After all, involving his dad meant, without a doubt, that they could not use magical transport, forcing them to go several days in a car. But that was not the worst part. Oh, no. Turns out that Jack Fenton came from a long line of obsessive supernatural hunters.

It probably would be like living with Rotwood. Or been related with the Huntsclan.

Jake shuddered, not sure what of his thoughts was the most disturbing.

In a way, he supposed, he shouldn't be so negative about things; these peoples hunted ghosts. And, albeit apparently Jack Fenton's ancestors also used to hunt witches at some point, they solely focused on ridding the world of evil spirits now, and thus, maybe them being there could even make things easier.

'Yeah, with my luck I'm sure everything is going to turn out peachy.' Jack sarcastically thought.

As he tried to think on a last minute excuse to make his dad stay behind, he briefly considered pinching the car's wheels with one of his claws—Jonathan Long had been adamant of taking them there by car, so maybe if the car didn't work they could weasel themselves out of it?

Jake let the happy idea lingered for a second of two before he decided it was unrealistic. His dad would tag along whichever way they went there… unless they sneaked out at night and vanishing down a road he could not walk, which would be ever worse than letting the man come with them.

Packing yet another shirt in the trunk in front of him, Jake momentarily resented that his relatives were so willing to let his dad —someone they probably barely knew— along with two complete strangers at their place without any previous notice. It made Jake wonder what kind of people they were.

"Jake, bring down your things, we are leaving in five minutes."

Jake closed the trunk with his possessions with a sigh and headed down dragging his feet.

"We will go pick up your grandfather after this and hit the road! isn't this exiting? All men, traveling the road for hours and hours!"

Jake sighed once more and claimed the back seat —his grandfather would be seated in the co-pilot one latter. And Fu dog had been left behind with Trixie and Spud to take care of anything that happened here in New York.

They picked up his gramps soon enough and Jake simply sunk into his seat as his father happily produced a CD. The Huba Hula song filed the air, and his dad proceeded to merrily sing along his gramps.

It was going to be a really, reeeeeally long trip.

**To be continued.**

* * *

><p>AN: This fic shall be updated irregularly.<p> 


End file.
